Tinctured Polarities: Town and Country Planning for Post-war London

This chapter analyses Patrick Abercrombie’s views on town and country as the two domains of human planning activity and the question of urban productive spaces through his most significant writings and two of his wartime plans: the County of London Plan 1943 and the Greater London Plan 1944. In contrast to a dichotomist reading of his positions, the central argument reflects upon Abercrombie’s understanding of such polarities as necessary for achieving a dynamic balance between the urban and the rural in regional planning. Since such polarities were to be tinctured by one another and considering the wartime as a moment of significant crisis, the chapter also interrogates how urban productive spaces have been included in these plans. A reflective reading of Abercrombie’s conceptualisations of town and country, employment of the green belt and green wedges as mediatory elements, defence of the protection of agricultural land, localisation of food production, and resilient approach regarding the capacity for adaptation of green spaces for food production can contribute to contemporary discussions on territorial dynamics and the sustainability of food systems.